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“I love gyros,” I typed into my phone, and she looked pleased.
“Great. I’ll order enough for both of us, then.”
***
The following day, I was doing a walk-through of the hotel lobby and reception area when Rhys paged me, requesting I come see him in his office. I made the short walk there and knocked on the door before he called for me to come in.
“Shay, how did things go with Maggie last night?” he asked when I entered.
I shot him a look and signed, I know you didn’t call me here to chit chat about my love life. I had no interest in talking to Rhys about how Maggie and I had sat in her tiny flat, eating Greek food and getting to know each other for hours. I’d hated having to leave, but I knew spending the night was out of the question. There was a fragility in Maggie, and I didn’t want to push her for more than she was ready to give.
Rhys chuckled. “Fair enough. Just thought you might like to talk about it. Anyway, I wanted to ask a favour.”
Go for it.
“You know how I do freelance work on the side sometimes?” I nodded. “Well, I’ve been hired to do the security at a private party this month. Super VIP guest list. I need about five people. The pay is two hundred each for the night. Are you in?”
Sure, just let me know the details, and I’ll be there.
“Perfect. I’ll text you.”
I was about to leave when I noticed a new photograph on the shelf behind his desk. Rhys had a few photographs, one of him and Stephanie, and another of him and his mother, my aunt, who passed away when Rhys was in his early twenties. The new picture showed Rhys when he was a chubby teenager, surrounded by his group of friends. There were his best friends, the brothers, Tristan and Derek Balfe, their younger sister, Nuala, and then another girl I didn’t recognise. She was pretty with dark brown hair and hazel eyes.
New picture? I signed at him, gesturing to the framed photo.
Rhys glanced behind him for a second, then nodded. “Ah, yeah. Derek gave it to me. We were only about nineteen in that one, I think.”
Who’s the brunette?
Again, his attention went to the picture. Some emotion passed over his features before he quickly disguised it and cleared his throat. “That’s Tristan and Derek’s cousin from the States, Charli. She came to visit them one summer.”
She’s pretty.
Rhys ran a hand over his jaw, looking tired suddenly. “Yeah, she is. Or, well, she was. I haven’t seen her in a long time.”
Something told me there was more to the story he didn’t want to get into, so I left it at that. Well, I better get back, I signed. Let me know about the job.
“Will do,” Rhys replied.
That evening, I sat with Maggie on the bus, and we talked through the app. I didn’t care that some of the other passengers stared at us curiously. I enjoyed talking with her too much to be self-conscious about the method we had to use.
“I need to grab some groceries,” she said when we got off the bus a little while later. “Want to come with me? Then we can go back to my place, and I can cook us dinner.”
I nodded, thrilled she was inviting me back again. I loved being in her space, loved the intimacy of being alone with her, no one to interrupt us. My momentary high was shot down when I realised which supermarket she was headed to, my previous place of employment and also where my ex, Emer, still worked.
I’d been a security guard there for five years before we broke up, and I had to leave. I couldn’t keep going to a place every day where I had to see someone I used to love and trust. Someone who shattered that love and trust into a million tiny pieces.
What I told Maggie last night was true, I was over Emer. What I didn’t say was I still avoided all the places I knew she might be because the idea of running into her was uncomfortable for me. I didn’t want to be her friend or have her try to be in my life again at all. I just wasn’t interested in any of that because if I couldn’t trust her as my girlfriend, then I couldn’t trust her as a friend. And I knew what Emer was like. She’d try to mend bridges and convince me we should still hang out even if we weren’t together anymore. That was the kind of person she was. She didn’t like people dropping out of her life forever. She went to the trouble of staying in touch with every friend she’d ever made, from primary school through to adulthood.
